Lebanese Cabbage Rolls with Prosciutto
Jan 19, 2009
This is my kind of comfort food as it’s warm, inviting and utterly delicious. Stuffed cabbage rolls is traditional Lebanese food and is perfect for Winter. In Arabic it’s called “Malfouf” which means roll. Growing up Mum would make this for us about once every two weeks.
When we were old enough, she would sit us at the kitchen table and create a factory line of different tasks of cutting the cabbage, adding the meat, and then rolling the cabbage rolls. Mum’s cabbage rolls are made with simple ingredients of rice, minced meat, garlic, lemon, salt and pepper. I added in the prosciutto for a bit fun and flavor. The cabbage rolls melt in your mouth.
The photo isn’t the best, as it got dark before the rolls were ready!
Ingredients
| 1 |
large cabbage |
| ½ |
pound minced meat |
| 1 |
cup rice |
| 2 |
tablespoons melted butter |
| 1 |
teaspoon salt |
| ¼ |
teaspoon pepper |
| – |
Peeled head of garlic |
| 1-2 |
lemons |
| 8 |
slices of prosciutto |
Serves
6
Prep Time
45 minutes
Cook Time
30-45 minutes
Directions
Heat large pot of water. Cut cabbage in half, peel off each layer of cabbage slowly.
Blanche cabbage leaves in boiling water, adding 3- 4 leaves at a time
Leaves are done when the cabbage turns to a deep green color (3 mins).
Continue until all cabbage leaves are blanched, place the leaves in a colander.
Mix meat, rice, melted butter, salt and pepper.
Add spoonful of mixture onto cabbage and roll like a cigarette. Squeeze the roll, so all the water is out of the roll. This will help in keeping its form.
Place 2-3 slices of prosciutto in bottom of heavy pot.
Add cabbage rolls to pot,side by side. Then once layer is complete, add layer of prosciutto, and tuck in 3-4 garlic cloves per row.
Continue until all cabbage leaves are rolled, if there is any left over mixture, freeze it for next time
Add water to pot ensuring cabbage rolls are immersed. Place a small plate on top of the cabbage, this keeps the cabbage cooking evenly, place lid
Cook for 30 to 45 minutes on medium low
Cabbage rolls are done when the rice is cooked through, start checking after 30 minutes.
When done, switch the stove off, and add 2 squeezed lemons to the pot, let sit for 5 minutes.
Filed Under
Main Course and Middle Eastern Recipes
Spices Used
Pepper
Other Ingredients Used
Cabbage
9 Comments
“The prosciutto is a great touch!”
—Danipal, about 1 year ago
“My grandmother used to make the BEST stuffed cabbage rolls.
I have been too chicken to attempt her recipe.
You have inspired me to do so!”
—Stacey Snacks, about 1 year ago
“I made cabbage rolls for the first time recently and loved them. I used ground turkey and brown rice for the filling. Can't wait to have them again!”
—lisaiscooking, about 1 year ago
“I love the addition of prosciutto in this dish. Yum!”
—Dragon, about 1 year ago
“Sounds great. I just found a little Italian deli selling the end pieces of prosciutto for a couple bucks yesterday. I wasn't sure what I'd do with such a large piece of prosciutto at the time, but thanks for the great idea!”
—Marc @ NoRecipes, about 1 year ago
“I adore cabbage rolls and the addition of proscuitto is fabulous! Thankyou for the recipe :)”
—Lorraine @NotQuiteNigella, about 1 year ago
“Yum! Prosciutto makes everything more delicious.”
—Larissa, about 1 year ago
“I have been a avid reader of your site and i must say like all other posts this too was awesome…Keep it Up”
—organic spices, about 1 year ago
“he cabbage rolls are great in spanish we call them tabaquitos ,thans so much”
—maria, about 1 year ago